Australian Aboriginal Studies: Issue 1, 2016

Abstracts

Homelessness, homelands, human rights — Anita Heiss

This paper is an edited version of the Human Rights Oration presented at the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne on 10 December 2015.

Stones and grinding: Wagiman ethnogeology — Mark Harvey

Abstract: An extensive research literature focuses on stone as an instrument in, and output of, manufacturing processes, including substantial literature in ethnoarchaeology which reports and analyses manufacturing processes from the perspective of people with knowledge of these processes. By contrast, there is a dearth of literature on either stone as an input to manufacturing or on stone in other contexts. There has been no examination to determine if there are systematic subclass oppositions within stone terminologies and, if so, which parameters these oppositions reflect. Developing an overall understanding of stone terminology — ethnogeology — will advance analysis of the conceptualisation of both raw materials and manufacturing in hunter-gatherer economies. Wagiman stone terminology is presented as a detailed example.

Gender, internet and computer access in remote Central Australian Aboriginal contexts — Eleanor Hogan

Abstract: Young Aboriginal women account for the largest and most enthusiastic group of users in the Home Internet Project, which trialled household internet and computer technology access for the first time in three very remote Central Australian communities. Over a two-and-a-half year period researchers regularly employed a life events survey to examine the impacts that internet access might have on community members’ everyday lives. Women, especially younger ones, emerged as the main users, managing access to the computers within individual households and performing activities online for other family members. These findings counter trends that gender digital divide researchers originally observed of men and boys as ‘early adopters’ and greater users of digital technology. They are also the reverse of those from a study of Papunya’s shared computing facility that found young men predominated as users. This paper explores the implications of gender identification with particular social spaces — the household in the small communities and the shared facility at Papunya — for digital inclusion in remote Aboriginal contexts. A further dimension of this research is how the association not only of space but of human resources, roles and activities, with different social groups, may impact the equity of internet and computer access and usage within remote Aboriginal communities.

Ngalak koora koora djinang (Looking back together): a Nyoongar and scientifice collaborative history of ancient Nyoongar boodja — Francesca Robertson, Glen Stasiuk, Noel Nannup and Stephen Hopper

Abstract: The Synergies of Meaning Research Project, based at Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University, constructs a working relationship between traditional Aboriginal knowledge and Western natural and social scientific knowledge. The aim is to find ways of going forward together. One recently completed focus, Nyoongar Boodja, required the development of a collaborated timeline of the formation of Nyoongar land. Cooperative inquiry and research of narrative methods were used. Eleven eras are identified, with the focus of the first eight being land from (1) The Nyetting (The cold, dark time = Permian ice ages 350 million years ago) to (8) Wardanaak boodja (The Holocene flood, 7000 years ago). Astonishing resonances between the knowledge sets were discovered. This coincidence of Nyoongar-inherited lore with Western scientific discoveries about the evolution of Nyoongar boodja highlights the value of walking together, cross-culturally, seeking synergies of meaning.

An investigation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men’s learning through Men’s sheds in Australia — Jillian Cavanagh, Amie Shaw and Timothy Bartram

Abstract: This study builds on understandings of how learning occurs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in Men’s Groups and Sheds across Australia. Wenger’s (1998) model of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire provides the theoretical framework to underpin this study. Qualitative methods are presented and analysed; methods comprise yarning circles (focus groups) and semi-structured interviews with 15 groups and 45 men. Findings reveal that Men’s Groups and Sheds provide a safe and conducive environment for men to yarn and learn new skills about educational, employment and economic matters and enhance their social learning and ability to reconnect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions and culture. Men’s Groups and Sheds are a unique and culturally sensitive way to provide Indigenous men with the skills that may lead to employment. The improvement of the social determinants of Indigenous men’s lives is critical to enhancing their employability.

Beyond equality: the place of Aboriginal culture in the Australian game of football — Barry Judd and Tim Butcher

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of Aboriginal interventions in the sport of Australian (Rules) Football in the period since the formation of the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990. Recalling several pivotal events that have defined and redefined the relationship between Aboriginal people and the Australian game of football, this paper finds that the struggle to end on-field racial vilification in the 1990s attracted widespread support from the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal public because these actions were consistent with the political principle of equality. The key actions of Nicky Winmar and Michael Long gained general appeal because they demanded that Aboriginal people be treated as though they were Anglo-Australians. In this regard, the 1990s fight against on-field racism in the AFL was a continuation of the Aboriginal struggle for rights associated with Australian citizenship. As the 1967 Commonwealth referenda on Aborigines demonstrated, most Anglo-Australians understood and supported the political principle of equality even though the promise of citizenship in substantive improvements to social and economic outcomes almost 50 years later remains largely unfulfilled.

Nevertheless, in the recently concluded 2015 AFL season, Adam Goodes, the most highly decorated Aboriginal man to play the sport at the highest level, was effectively booed into retirement. Goodes became a controversial and largely disliked figure in the sport when he used the public honour of being 2014 Australian of the Year to highlight the disadvantage and historical wrongs that continue to adversely impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities. This paper argues that Goodes effectively sought to shift the paradigm of Aboriginal struggle beyond the sympathetic notions of racism and equal treatment to issues of historical fact that imply First Nations rights associated with cultural practice. Goodes’ career initiates a new discussion about the place that Aboriginal cultures, traditions and understandings might have in the sport today. His decision to perform an Aboriginal war dance demonstrates that the new paradigm we propose is primarily about the political principle of difference, not equality.

Research report

Finding Aboriginal lives in United Kingdom museum collections: artefacts from the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England — Gaye Sculthorpe